Juynboll, The Role of Mawali in Early Development of Hadith

THE ROLE OF NON-ARABS, THE MAWALI,
IN THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MUSLIM ÎADITH
Dedicated to the memory of

Ulrich Haarmann (1942-99)
Introduction. Some mawali of the first/seventh century reviewed
Throughout this paper I have dealt with people from the conquered
lands, dhimmis or other, who were identified in the sources, even if only
in passing or merely by implication, as belonging to the social class of
mawali, the plural of mawla. I did not distinguish between clients of an
individual patron, that patron's tribe or any other tribe, or through their
ancestors. I did not indicate either, if persons only became mawali as a
consequence of conversion to Islam. The mere mention of the term
mawla, or the case so being mawlahum1, following their name(s) was
enough.
The role which mawali played in early Islam in transmitting and cir-
culating Prophetic and other traditions cannot be overestimated. The
evolution of Ìadith literature2 cannot be assessed properly without atten-
tion being paid to the activities in this matter of the hundreds of persons
from the territories which Islam overpowered since the death of the
Prophet MuÌammad in the year 11/632. Upon manumission those per-
sons became affiliated to Arab masters and their tribes and clans, acquir-
ing the status of client, mawla.
Judgeing by the frequency of the term mawla in the historical ac-
counts covering the years of the Prophet's life and during the first dec-
ades of Islam, the number of mawali is still limited. Occasionally we
read about young men captured in the course of conquests or raids. More
often than not they were mentioned in tandem with certain Arabs who
had taken them under their wings, resulting in a patronage relationship.
Also MuÌammad's name is mentioned in the sources in connection with
1
The term mawlahum is found frequently immediately following a nisba in the list of
names of a pedigree.
2
In the following pages some recently developed technical terms in Ìadith science
will occasionally crop up such as common link, partial common link, single strand, spi-
der, isnad bundle, ‘dives' and ‘diving', etc. For definitions and special studies on these
the reader is referred to the index s.vv. in G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, Studies on the origins and
uses of Islamic Ìadith (Collected Studies Series, 550), Aldershot, 1996.
356 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
a few mawali3. In the course of time the lists of mawali associated with
the Prophet become longer in subsequent sources, a phenomenon we
have come to recognize too in the ever-increasing numbers of people
who allegedly belonged to the category of the Prophet's Companions: the
later the Companions' lexicon, the more (quasi) historical, little-known or
majhul, i.e. unknown, Companions the Prophet of Islam appears to have
had. The following pages contain of necessity only a selection of mawali,
but they are by far the most important ones. Producing a seemingly ex-
haustive collection of mawali, who sought the challenge to describe and
define their new religion and thus helped shaping Muslim Ìadith literature
and related genres, would require a hefty monograph. In my treatment of
several persons I could not resist occasionally inserting certain data that
are humorous or just striking, although they have no immediately appar-
ent bearing on Ìadith evolution, this in order to enliven somewhat a dis-
course that may otherwise turn out as dry as dust. This catalogue of
mawali is presented here as much as possible in chronological order.
In isnad strands on the Companions' level just a few mawali are men-
tioned. There is in the first place the hapless mawla of Abu Bakr, Bilal,
allegedly Islam's first muâdhdhin, who was used once by two common
links (henceforth: cls), the mawla Sulayman b. Mihran al-A¨mash (d.
147-8/764-5, see below) and the Arab Malik b. Anas (d. 179/795) in two
traditions. Needless to stress that Bilal had absolutely nothing to do with
those traditions4. Then there is Abu Rafi¨, a mawla of the Prophet. He
turns up in the isnad bundles of a few traditions with the mawla Shu¨ba
(d. 160/777, see below), the Arab Malik b. Anas and the mawla Sufyan
b. Üyayna (d. 198/814) as cls. The rest of traditions with Abu Rafi¨
strands are all single strands (henceforth: ss's). The mawla Thawban
settled eventually in ÎimÒ5. But among MuÌammad's contemporaries in
3
Cf. MuÌammad Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat al-kubra, ed. IÌsan Äbbas, Beirut, n.d., I,
p. 497 sqq. (= Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat). A poignant story is related about a man called
Sandar, who was also mawla of the Prophet and who died during the reign of Äbd al-
Malik. When he was still a slave of al-Zinba¨ al-Judhami, he was once seen kissing a girl.
Thereupon his master had him emasculated and his nose and ears cut off. The man went
to the Prophet who granted him his freedom saying: ‘A slave who was mutilated or burnt
with fire by his master is henceforth free: he has become a mawla of God and His Mes-
senger’. Sandar was allotted a property in Egypt where he lived until his death, cf. Ibn
Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, VII, p. 505 sqq.
4
See Yusuf b. Äbd ar-RaÌman al-Mizzi, TuÌfat al-ashraf bi-ma¨rifat al-a†raf, ed.
Äbd aÒ-∑amad Sharaf ad-Din, Bhiwandi, 1965-1982, II, nos. 2037 (kh, m, d, s, q) and
2047 (m, t, s, q) (= al-Mizzi, TuÌfat). The abbreviations used are kh = Bukhari, m = Mus-
lim b. al-Îajjaj, d = Abu Dawud, t = Tirmidhi, s = Nasa’i and q = Ibn Maja al-Qazwini.
For a study of Mizzi and his main works, see G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. al- Mizzi, in Encyclo-
paedia of Islam. New Edition, Leiden, 1960-2004 (= EI 2), M- p. 212-213.
5
The one and only isnad bundle going back to the Prophet via him that has a plausible
cl is one with the Arab Awzaï (d. 158/775) as cl, cf. al-Mizzi, TuÌfat, II, no. 2099 (m, d,
t, s, q).
THE ROLE OF NON-ARABS, THE MAWALI 357
whom the community put its trust directly after his death, we find no
mawali mentioned6. Under the reigns of the khulafaˆ rashidun, i.e. the
rightly-guided caliphs, no prominent mawla came to the fore to air legal
opinions or decide in matters of public concern. But as from the time the
Umayyads ruled, we encounter the first mawali whose reputed expertise
was tapped in certain controversial cases that apparently arose. In the be-
ginning this expertise was more often than not based upon individual
decision making (raˆy) rather than upon knowledge of precedent (ïlm).
In several anecdotes mawali are depicted as more meritorious in the
broadest sense of the word than Arabs, and in other such stories the op-
posite is the case. Reading between the lines, we notice cases of enmity
flaring up between Arab and mawla. In early Islam a mawla's position
obviously fluctuated depending on the stance of the chronicler between
(downright) negative and (downright) positive. Although MuÌammad
b. Muslim Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri may be thought not to belong in this
survey of early Ìadith-connected mawali, it may serve a purpose that
will soon become clear to start here with two reports featuring him.
Zuhri is generally considered to be a descendant of the noble clan of the
Banu Zuhra of Quraysh. However, his pedigree is to say the least prob-
lematical. About his father, Muslim b. Übayd Allah, and his grandfather
Übayd Allah b. Äbd Allah, we know next to nothing. They are only
very rarely mentioned as having led lives of their own. There are no tan-
gible data associated with them which might make them into believable
historical figures. Zuhri is commonly called after his great-grandfather
Ibn Shihab about whom there is no meaningful information either. The
links between him and the famous Zuhri are so obscure that one may be
forgiven for thinking that they are merely fictitious links in a nasab,
pedigree, in order to bridge a certain time gap. Ironically, the first anec-
dote (in Ibn Sa¨d) describes how Zuhri was upbraided for avoiding trans-
mitting religious knowledge from mawali. ‘But I do!', he is reported to
have exclaimed, ‘however, what should I ask mawali about, if I find
plenty of information with Arabs from among reliable Muhajirun and
AnÒar7?'
And now for the second anecdote. Although it is labeled reprehensible
(munkar) by the author who quotes it8, this significant, most probably
6
Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, II, p. 334 ff.
7
Cf. Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, II, p. 388.
8
MuÌammad b. AÌmad adh-Dhahabi, Siyar a¨lam al-nubala’, ed. Sh. Arna’u†, Beirut,
1981-1984, V, p. 85 (= Dhahabi, Siyar). Zuhri’s alleged transmitter whom Dhahabi cites
is a mawla of Yazid b. Äbd al-Malik, one al-Walid b. MuÌammad al-Muqari (d. 182/
798) someone generally decried a liar who should be shunned also because of his munkar
traditions from Zuhri, cf. Ibn Îajar al-‘Asqalani, Tahdhib at-tahdhib, ed. MuÌammad
Sharif ad-Din, Hyderabad, 1325, reprint Beirut, 1968, XI, p. 149 (= Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib).
358 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
apocryphal, dialogue describing how Zuhri was once interrogated by the

Umayyad caliph Äbd al-Malik b. Marwan touches directly on the
mawla-Arab question:
“Äbd al-Malik asked me (i.e. Zuhri):

‘Where did you come from?'
‘From Mecca,' I answered.
‘Whom did you leave behind in charge?', he asked.
‘Ä†aˆ (b. Abi RabaÌ),' I answered.
‘Is he an Arab or a mawla?'
‘He is a mawla.'
‘What is his authority based upon?'
‘On his religiosity (diyana) and on his transmission (riwaya, sc. of
precedent).'
Äbd al-Malik said: ‘People of religiosity and transmission deserve to
be charged with authority. Who is in charge in Yaman?'
‘™awus,' I replied.
‘Is he an Arab or a mawla?', he asked again.
‘He is a mawla,' I replied.
‘And who is in charge in Syria?' …
‘MakÌul' …
‘Is he an Arab or a mawla?' …
‘He is a mawla, a Nubian slave who was given his freedom by a
woman from Hudhayl' …
‘And who is in charge of the people in the Jazira?' …
‘Maymun b. Mihran, a mawla' …
‘And who is in charge of the people in Khurasan? …
‘A∂-∆aÌÌak b. MuzaÌim, a mawla' …
‘And who is in charge in BaÒra?' …
‘Al-Îasan, a mawla' …
‘And who is in charge in Kufa?' …
‘Ibrahim an-Nakhaï,' …
‘Is he an Arab or a mawla?' …
‘He is an Arab.' …
‘Woe unto you, [but] you have taken a load off my mind. By God, let
mawali be in charge of Arabs in this land to the point that the mawali
preach to them from pulpits, while the Arabs are listening beneath,'
Äbd al-Malik said.
‘It is all a matter of religion, Commander of the faithful,' I said, ‘he
who preserves it, will be in charge, and he who loses it, will crash.'“(In
a parallel version (ibidem) Egypt is added in this enumeration, with the

mawla Yazid b. Abi Îabib (d. 128/746) having been put in charge9.)
This dialogue may cause one to mull over a few details. First of all, in
virtually the entire Islamic domain at the time mawali were allegedly in
charge — implied is here: consulted in matters to do with religion —,
Kufa being the exception. Secondly, Zuhri is here described as an Arab
who was apparently sought out to give advice in religious affairs in
Mecca, before he left it for the Umayyad court, to be replaced by the
mawla Ä†aˆ. ‘Being in charge of religious affairs' is what it says liter-
ally, but how we have to visualize this, is another matter. It might per-
haps be more appropriate to see him as some sort of primus inter pares
among other people of repute. Most of the persons paraded in the anec-
dote will receive mention again in the following pages, next to a number
of others.
After the Companions, we should focus first of all among the Succes-
sors on ™awus b. Kaysan, a mawla of Persian extraction who died in
101/720, 105/724 or 106/725. He lived in Yaman from where it is said
that he made the pilgrimage some forty, in other words: numerous,
times. He was eventually buried in Mecca10. The pre-canonical Ìadith
sources are replete with mawqufat (i.e. reports supported by strands
‘stopping' at a Companion without the Prophet being mentioned),
mursalat (idem without a Companion reporting on the Prophet, but a
Successor or someone later) and aqwal (i.e. opinions not based upon
precedent but on someone's own individual reasoning) transmitted on
his alleged authority. To what extent these can partly be considered as
authentic transmissions — or the case so being: statements — of ™awus
depends on whether there are in each case other, parallel reports with
him in the isnad strand which enable the researcher to tentatively at-
tribute some of them to him. With or without the insertion of Mujahid
(see below) as his pupil in the isnad strand, the Arab Sufyan b. Saïd ath-
Thawri (d. 161/778) and the mawali A¨mash, Ibn Jurayj (d. 150/767; see
below) and Qutayba b. Saïd (d. 240/854) are some of the persons who
emerge as twice, three times or four times removed cls in isnad bundles
in which ™awus sits in the tier of the Successor. One major feature of
™awus' influence upon his environment may be gleaned from the report
that says that he used to issue ‘concessions', rukhaÒ11, in obligations
9
He was a reputable historian. Furthermore, according to a report from the awaïl
genre he was the first to spread ïlm in Egypt and to instigate a discussion about ‘permis-
sible and forbidden’, cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, XI, p. 319.
10
Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, V, p. 9.
11
For an overview of the rukhÒa phenomenon, see M.J. KISTER, On ‘concessions’ and
conduct. A study in early Ìadith in G.H.A. JUYNBOLL (ed.), Studies on the first century of
Islamic society, Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1982, p. 89 sqq.
360 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
which the people found (too) hard to comply with while, on the other
hand, he used to raise standards of compliance in prescripts in which the
people showed themselves to be remiss12.
Ä†aˆ b. Abi RabaÌ, (d. 114/732 or 115/733) a mawla of Quraysh and
schoolmaster, labeled sayyid al-muslimin13, or ‘leader of the Muslims',
was universally considered as the first great expert on manasik, i.e. the
pilgrimage regulations underlying Ìajj, ümra and accompanying ritual.
In a report14 his mursalat were considered inferior to those of the Arabs
Ibn al-Musayyab and Ibrahim an-Nakhaï. One may be forgiven for
thinking that there is rivalry at play here.
Rulings and decisions attributed to Ä†aˆ and ™awus are found by the
hundreds in the pre-canonical Ìadith collections such as those of the
mawali Äbd ar-RaÂÂaq (d. 211/827) and Ibn Abi Shayba (d. 235/849).
From these sources can also be gleaned how those decisions, which
might have started life as statements of their own, became with time en-
larged and embellished by allegedly older links in transmitters' chains
back to the Prophet. The isnads, namely, had become a condition for a
report to be accepted or rejected. The birth of the isnad institution as
authentication device can at the earliest be dated to the seventies of the
first/seventh century, coinciding with the time the early mawali just
mentioned were in their prime. But the insertion of isnad strands was in
those first evolutionary stages of Ìadith neither perfectly, nor indeed
consistently, practised. Even so, the phenomenon of multiple strands all
allegedly supporting one and the same idea gradually becomes discern-
ible. See Abu ‘l-Äliya below.
Mawali and the Qurân
Also in problems arising out of the correct recitation, transmission or

interpretation of Qurânic passages, certain mawali displayed compe-
tence. After the Companion Salim, the mawla of the Companion Abu
Îudhayfa, reportedly known for his prowess in Qurân recitation15, first
among Islam's early Qurân exegetes is the mawla Mujahid b. Jabr (d.
102/721 or 104/723). He moved to Kufa later in life16. Currently avail-
12
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, V, p. 43.
13
Dhahabi, Siyar, V, p. 81. Sayyid al-muslimin, or comparable labels, is a topical ex-
pression frequently mixed in among other qualifications of mawali as we shall see.
14
Dhahabi, Siyar, V, p. 86.
15
For patron and mawla, see Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, III, p. 84-8, where we find a
number of interesting sociological details on the relationship between them. Both are said
to have died a martyr’s death in the battle of the Yamama.
16
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, IV, p. 452.
able in two editions17, his tafsir is the earliest such work in printed Is-
lamic religious literature. Immediately after Mujahid, Ïkrima should be
introduced here. He was a mawla of the Prophet's cousin Äbd Allah b.
Äbbas. Ïkrima was presented to Ibn Äbbas when he was appointed
governor of BaÒra. He was called the Ìabr (i.e. a non-Muslim religious
authority) of this community18. It is reported that he used to give legal
advice at the door, while Ibn Äbbas remained inside the house19. He
was given his freedom upon Ibn Äbbas' death20. A man once said to
him that he had had a dream in which someone falsely accused him of
adultery. ‘Flog his shadow with eighty lashes,' Ïkrima is said to have
replied21. He is reported to have traveled extensively in Egypt and the
Maghrib, where he spread the ideologies of the Îaruriyya and
∑ufriyya22. He was a confirmed Iba∂i and a Bayhasi23, for which he was
taken to task. But he was also considered to be a worthy successor to Ibn
Äbbas. He died sometime between the years 104/722 and 107/725.
Mujahid as well as Ïkrima were allegedly the main transmitters of Ibn
Äbbas' reputed Qurân expertise, but this is in no way borne out in
isnad evidence from the sources. Comprehensive isnad analysis carried
out during the last few decades has resulted in the all-encompassing con-
clusion that the masses of exegetical material traced back via Ibn Äbbas
to the Prophet himself cannot be attributed to him, but constitute whole-
sale, relatively late (in other words: ss and spider-supported) products of
artificial raising to the level (Arabic: raf¨24) of Prophetic authentication.
In short, considering Ibn Äbbas as ‘the father of Qurân exegesis in
Islam' is a pertinacious and widespread misconception of some magni-
tude. Whether the individual, exegetical explanations attributed to either
Mujahid or Ïkrima can ever be proved to be genuinely theirs remains to
be seen and, in any case, requires, as always in the interpretation of Is-
lam's earliest sources, a valiant act of faith. Dispassionate historians are
not capable of this. And the layout of the Mujahid editions is not help-
ful: most of the time the attribution to the exegete is far from clear-
cut.
17
Edited by Äbd ar-RaÌman a†-™ahir b. MuÌammad as-Surati, Islamabad, [n.d.] and
by MuÌammad Äbd as-Salam Abu ‘n-Nil, Madinat NaÒr, [Cairo], 1989.
18
19
Dhahabi, Siyar, V, p. 14.
20
Dhahabi, Siyar, p. 16.
21
22
Two early Kharijite groupings, cf. L. VECCIA VAGLIERI, art. Îarura’, in EI 2, s.n.,
and W. MADELUNG, art. ∑ufriyya, in EI 2, s.n.
23
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, V, p. 20 f.
24
Cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. Raf¨, in EI 2, s.n.
362 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
In Kufa there lived the popular preacher-cum-Qurân exegete, the

mawla Ismaïl b. Äbd ar-RaÌman as-Suddi (d. 127/74525). His nisba,
‘he of the threshold', he thanked to his custom to sit on the threshold
(Ar.: sudd) of the mosque where he gathered the people around him to
regale them with qiÒaÒ, stories, many of which may have been the fruits
of his own imagination. The Arab Ämir b. SharaÌil ash-Sha¨bi (d.
sometime between 103/721 and 110/ 728) thought nothing of these26, but
they must have exerted a certain appeal. Another report has it that he
used to sell women's veils on that threshold27. The comprehensive tafsir
compilation of ™abari is chock-full with Suddi's — as well as with
Mujahid's and Ïkrima's — exegetical remarks. His role in the transmis-
sion of ordinary Ìadith is otherwise minimal.
A particularly interesting figure is Muqatil b. Sulayman (d. 150/
767), another early exegete. He was a mawla from Khurasan who taught
the Qurân and told qiÒaÒ, often probably as part of the Friday sermon
(Ar.: khu†ba)28, in numerous mosques all over the Islamic lands, if the
reports describing him in that role are anything to go by. He had the
(Persian) nickname (ibn) Duwaldoz or Juwaldoz, which means ‘he who
sews deceit'. He was a self-styled expert on everything ‘below God's
throne' and bragged about his infinite knowledge. This occasionally in-
cited people in his audience to trip him up, exposing his ignorance in
certain mundane matters. The biographical notices devoted to him in the
rijal works are replete with anecdotes in this vein29. Muqatil's activities
25
See G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. Ismaïl b. Äbd ar-RaÌman as-Suddi, in EI 2, s.n.
26
For more on this important legal specialist and Ìadith transmitter, see G.H.A. JUYN-
BOLL, art. Ämir b. SharaÌil ash-Sha¨bi, in EI 2, s.n. Sha¨bi’s judgement of Suddi may
have been inspired by his disgust with the remark of the mawla Ismaïl b. Abi Khalid (see
below) who claimed that Suddi’s knowledge of the Qur’an was more extensive than
Sha¨bi’s: Arab/mawla rivalry rearing its ugly head, cf. Äbd al-Karim b. MuÌammad al-
Samäni, Al-Ansab, ed. Äbd ar-RaÌman b. YaÌya al-Muällimi al-Yamani, Hyderabad,
1962-82, VII, p. 109 (= Samäni, Ansab).
27
This seemingly quaint use of the nisba al-Suddi which sounds more like a nickname
is also found with other people, cf. Samäni, Ansab, p. 109 f.
28
That the Friday sermon in early Islam can be visualized as the preacher telling sto-
ries (Ar.: qiÒaÒ) is substantiated in a report: man fatahu al-qiÒaÒ yawma ‘l-jumä falyu-
Òalli arbaän, i.e. ‘He who misses the ‘stories’ on Friday should perform four (rakäs)’,
where other versions of the same report have khu†ba instead of qiÒaÒ, cf. Abu Bakr Ibn
Abi Shayba, MuÒannaf, ed. Äbd al-Khaliq Khan al-Afghani, Hyderabad/Bombay, 1966-
83, II, p. 128 (= Ibn Abi Shayba, MuÒannaf). One of Muqatil's most famous stories is ex-
tensively commented upon in G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, An incident of camel rustling in early
Islam, in R. BRUNNER, (ed.), Islamstudien ohne Ende, Würzburg, 2002, p. 225-237.
29
Cf. al-Kha†ib AL-BAGHDADI, Ta’rikh Baghdad, Cairo, 1931, XIII, p. 160-169 (=
Kha†ib, Ta’rikh), Üqayli, Kitab a∂-∂uäfa’ al-kabir, ed. Äbd al-Mu¨†i A. QALÄJI, Beirut,
1984, IV, p. 238-241, Yusuf b. Äbd ar-RaÌman al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-kamal, ed.
Bashshar Äwwad Ma¨ruf, Beirut, 1980-1991, XXVIII, p. 434-51 (= al-Mizzi, Tahdhib).
Äbd Allah b. Ädi al-Jurjani, Al-kamil fi ∂uäfa’ ar-rijal, ed. YaÌya Mukhtar GHAZZAWI,
3d impr., Beirut, 1988, VI, p. 437 sqq., lists several traditions allegedly transmitted by him
in the transmission of Ìadith were on the whole frowned upon. He hardly

ever mentioned isnads and when he cited a strand, it was mostly decried
patently false. This practice earned him the qualification ‘liar', kadhdhab,
but one also gleans from the sources the impression that his exegesis of
the Qurân met widely with approval, probably because of its popular ap-
peal. Muqatil may, furthermore, also have had a hand in the proliferation
of the background story30 which illustrates how the Prophet, when he
married Zaynab bt. al-JaÌsh, had the Ìijab verse (XXXIII: 58) revealed
to him when, during the banquet, he was irritated by some visitors who
had overstayed their welcome. None of the traditions in the canonical
collections dealing with the Zaynab-Ìijab association has a bundle from
which a cl can be distilled: all isnad formations are ss's or late spiders.
The early exegete Mujahid does not yet list the story, neither does Ibn
IsÌaq. We may therefore tentatively infer that the story originated with
Muqatil. Soon after that the traditionists began to embellish it with nar-
rative trimmings. Finally, a topical saying of Muqatil himself which seem-
ingly bears no clear connection with a Qurânic verse is found in his Taf-
sir31; we may assume that it constituted a digression in one of his qiÒaÒ:
Al-Ìusnu äshratu ajzaîn khamsatun li-Îawaˆ wa-thalathatun li-Sara
wa-waÌidun li-Yusuf wa-waÌidun li-saîri ‘n-nas, i.e. ‘Beauty consists of
ten parts: five are with Îawaˆ (i.e. Eve), three with Sara (i.e. the wife of
Abraham), one with Yusuf (i.e. the son of Jacob) and one part with all
other people.'
Finally, as I intimated, all early exegetes enumerated here figure often
in ™abari's Tafsir. Virtually the only early Arab of repute who deals with
Qurân exegesis and is also quoted in ™abari is BaÒra's blind muÌaddith
Qatada b. Diäma (d. 118/736).
In a Qurân-related discipline, the ïlm al-qiraât, the science of the
different readings, we find mentioned among its first representatives the
prominent Kufan mawla ÄÒim b. Bahdala Abi ‘n-Nujud (d. 128/745).
Islam's oldest recorded common link
The most ancient tangle of isnad strands I unearthed resulting in what

can best be described as a knot, with a number of separate strands blos-
soming forth from one particular transmitter, is the one that supports a
mursal anecdote. That one particular transmitter is Abu ‘l-Äliya Rufay¨
b. Mihran ar-RiyaÌi (d. 93/712), a BaÒran successor, faqih and Qurân
(= Ibn Ädi, Al-kamil). For many of his theological ideas, see J. VAN ESS, Theologie und
Gesellschaft, II, Berlin/New York, 1992, p. 516-32.
30
Cf. his Tafsir, ed. Äbd Allah MaÌmud SHIÎATA, Cairo, 1979-1989, II, p. 504 sqq.
31
IV, p. 794.
364 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
expert, mawla of the Banu RiyaÌ, a branch of Tamim32. He was

manumitted saîbatan33. He is said to have been born in the Jahiliyya, but
this seems apocryphal; it is in any case difficult te reconcile with his
statement that he was a youth (shabb34) at the time of the conflict be-
tween Äli and Muäwiya, i.e. the early 40-s/660-s35. So he is probably
not one of the muämmarun, that famous class of people in early Islam
known for their well-nigh miraculous longevity. Be that as it may, he is
in any case not listed among them in the lexicon especially devoted to
them36. The year he is said to have died is variously given as 90/709 or
93/712, but also later years are mentioned. It is reported that he em-
braced Islam a few years after MuÌammad's death, and that he acquired
a reputation as knowledgeable. He occurs fairly often in isnads and the
traditions he is recorded to have transmitted are labeled mustaqim, i.e.
‘upright', or ÒaliÌ, i.e. ‘pious'37. In the cluster of traditions dealing with
a tripartite division of Islam's first judges: ‘There are three sorts of
qa∂is…', he occupies one of several seeming cl positions38.
As I said, Abu ‘l-Äliya is, however, particularly well-known for one
tradition which, in contradistinction to all the other ones with which he
is associated, is generally held to be questionable. This tradition is a
mursal and does not occur in the canonical collections, but it is listed in
Abu Dawud's Marasil. Abu ‘l-Äliya once related a tradition (which is
paraphrased here including several of its numerous variant wordings):
“A man with poor eyesight entered the mosque at a time when the
Messenger of God was performing a Òalat with his Companions. The
man fell into a hole in the ground, whereupon several Companions burst
out laughing. After the Prophet had finished his Òalat, he ordered those
who had laughed to repeat the Òalat preceded by a proper wu∂uˆ ”39.
32
Cf. MuÌammad b. AÌmad ADH-DHAHABI, Tadhkirat al-ÌuffaÂ, Hyderabad, 1955, I,
p. 61.
33
Like the mawla Salim who was mentioned above. For this term, generally applied
to camels which are ‘retired’, cf. E.W. LANE, art. sa’iba in An Arabic-English lexicon,
Beirut, 1968, and MuÌammad b. Jarir a†-™abari, Tafsir, ed. A.M. Shakir, Cairo, 1374-
1388, III, p. 386.
34
The age groups shabb and fata, boy, are often used interchangeably, e.g. cf. TB, X,
p. 159.
35
Cf. Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, VII, p. 114; Abu Nuäym AÌmad b. ‘Abd Allah al
IÒfahani, Îilyat al-awliya’, Cairo 1932-1938, II, p. 219 (= Abu Nuäym, Îilyat).
36
MuÌammad b. AÌmad adh-Dhahabi’s Ahl al-mi’a fa-Òaïda, ed. Jacqueline SUBLET,
in Cahiers d'onomastique arabe, Paris, 1979, I, p. 99-159.
37
For a study of the term ÒaliÌ, which not only means ‘pious' but can have a host of
additional, partly contradictory and/or negative, connotations, cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art.
ÒaliÌ, in EI 2.
38
MuÌammad b. Khalaf b. Îayyan Waki¨, Akhbar al-qu∂at, ed. Äbd al-Äziz
MuÒ†afa al-Maraghi, Cairo, 1947-50, p. 18; Ibn Ädi, Al-kamil, III, p. 164.
39
al-Mizzi, TuÌfat, XIII, no. 18642 [d, Marasil, ed. Shuäyb al-Arna’u†, Beirut, 1988,
p. 75, confirmed in Ibn Abi Shayba, MuÒannaf, I, p. 388, Äbd ar-Razzaq aÒ-∑anäni,
Abu ‘l-Äliya's mursal tradition became controversial because some

of his contemporaries, Jabir b. Äbd Allah40 (see below), Zuhri, Sha¨bi
and al-Qasim b. MuÌammad did not stipulate as compensation for
laughter during the Òalat the repeat of the wu∂uˆ, but only the Òalat itself.
Îasan al-BaÒri is also occasionally mentioned in connection with this
mursal but many Ìadith experts agree that he had it from Abu ‘l-Äliya.
The most extensive analysis of its †uruq is found in Ibn Ädi41. The tradi-
tion also figures in the discussion on whether or not mursal traditions
can be adduced as arguments42. With an obvious pun on his nisba
MuÌammad b. Idris ash-Shafiï (d. 204/820) is even recorded at this
point as having defined the Ìadith of Abu ‘l-Äliya, who had the nisba
ar-RiyaÌi, as ‘mere wind' (Ar: riyaÌ43). But most interesting of all is
that it is this very tradition which prompted the mawla Äbd ar-RaÌman
b. Mahdi (d. 198/814), in his description of it, to use a derivative of the
verb dara/yaduru, this tradition ‘rotates' on Abu ‘l-Äliya44, the earliest
context found so far in which the word seems to be used in a Ìadith-
technical connotation. Ibn Ädi then analyses all its occurrences intro-
ducing on several occasions the word madar, seemingly employing it as
a technical term. Since this is the earliest recorded transmission for
which a Muslim tradition expert uses a term which is in all likelihood to
be put on a par with our terms cl or seeming cl, Ibn Ädi's concluding
remark deserves to be given in extenso:
Wa-li-Abi ‘l-Äliyati ‘r-RiyaÌi aÌadithu ÒaliÌatun ghayra ma dhakartu
wa-aktharu ma nuqima älayhi min hadha ‘l-Ìadithi Ìadithu ‘∂-∂aÌiki fi
‘Ò-Òalati wa-kulli man rawahu ghayrahu fa-innama madaruhum wa-
rujuühum ila Abi ‘l-Äliyati wa'l-Ìadithu lahu wa-bihi yu¨rafu wa-min
ajli hadha ‘l-Ìadithi takallamu fi Abi ‘l-Äliyati wa-saîru aÌadithihi
mustaqimatun ÒaliÌatun, i.e. “Abu ‘l-Äliya is associated with ‘pious'
traditions other than the ones I mentioned but of all these traditions he is
censored most for the tradition dealing with laughter during the Òalat; all
those who transmitted it also are likewise censored, but their ‘pivot'
MuÒannaf, ed. Îabib ar-RaÌman al-A¨Âami, Johannesburg etc. (Beirut), 1970-1972, II,
p. 376 sqq. (= Äbd ar-Razzaq, MuÒannaf), and especially Äli b. Ümar ad-Daraqu†ni,
Sunan, 4th impr., Beirut 1986, I, p. 162-71 (= Daraqu†ni, Sunan), who lists a long series
of several dozens of variants supported by as many partial cls as well as numerous at-
tempts at the hands of later transmitters to provide the text with marfu¨ strands].
40
Cf. Ibn Îajar al-‘Asqalani, FatÌ al-bari bi-sharÌ ∑aÌiÌ al-Bukhari, Cairo, 1959, I,
p. 291, line 3 (= Ibn Îajar, FatÌ).
41
Ibn Ädi, Al-kamil, III, p. 166-70.
42
Cf. Äbd ar-RaÌman b. AÌmad Ibn Rajab, SharÌ ïlal at-Tirmidhi, ed. ∑ubÌi Jasir
al-Îumaydi, Baghdad 1396, p. 238 sqq.
43
Cf. MuÌammad b. AÌmad adh-Dhahabi, Mizan al-i¨tidal, ed. Ä.M. al-Bajawi,
Cairo, 1963, II, p. 54.
44
Cf. Ibn Ädi, Al-kamil, III, p. 170, Daraqu†ni, Sunan, I, p. 166, 2.
366 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
(Ar.: madaruhum) and their authority (Ar.: rujuühum) is Abu ‘l-Äliya;

the tradition is his, it is known through him and because of this tradition
experts have criticized (takallamu fi) Abu ‘l-Äliya, whereas all the other
traditions he transmitted are straightforward and ‘pious'”45.
That the ∂aÌik tradition remained nonetheless of vital importance,
also in later years, may be proved by a remark the Arab al-Awzaï
(d. 158/775) is alleged to have made. Not knowing what to think, he
once asked the jurist Thawri, who was at the time sharing living quarters
with him in Mecca, what the final verdict was on laughter in the Òalat.
‘It necessitates a repeat of the Òalat as well as of a preceding wu∂uˆ,'
Thawri is said to have answered46.
Some more mawali
Another well-known mawla who deserves a place in the present con-

text is Sulayman b. Yasar, (d. 107/725), mawla of Maymuna, one of
the Prophet's wives. He was a älim and mufti in Medina. He is the only
mawla among the so-called ‘seven fuqahaˆ' of the city, the others were
all Arabs. He was sometimes even preferred to the Arab Saïd b. al-
Musayyab (d. 94/713), perhaps the best-known of the ‘seven'. He was
overseer of the market for Ümar b. Äbd al-Äziz, the then governor of
the city, and he may have acquired his lofty position because of that.
Nafi¨ (d. 117-20/735-8), always identified as the mawla of the
longeval Companion Äbd Allah b. Ümar (d. 73/692 or 74/693), was
supposedly a Medinese Successor of considerable repute. Nafi¨ is said to
have possessed a ÒaÌifa in which he allegedly recorded what he heard
from his patron, and he was a thiqa kathir al-Ìadith, as it says some-
where47. He constitutes one of the clearest examples in the entire canoni-
cal tradition literature of a seeming cl in whom, in numerous isnad bun-
dles, such masses of ‘diving' strands come together that a superficial
scanning of those bundles may give rise to the verdict that he is indeed
their cl. However, from a detailed analysis of the more than thousand
numbers in Mz. according to which he is recorded as having transmitted
traditions from his patron Ibn Ümar, it emerged that he should rather be
regarded as a constantly sought-after, and indeed spectacular, target of
innumerable ‘dives' in bundles whose real cl is in the first instance
45
Ibn Ädi, Al-kamil, III, p. 170, 19-22.
46
Cf. Kha†ib, Ta’rikh, IX, p. 162, 18 sqq.
47
Cf. MuÌammad Ibn Sa¨d, A†-™abaqat al-kubra. Al-qism al-mutammim, ed. Ziyad
MuÌammad ManÒur, p. 142 sqq. Cf. also Ibn Abi Shayba, MuÒannaf, XIV, p. 427.
Malik b. Anas, in due course imitated by a few dozen or so of contempo-

rary and younger cls from Iraq, Mecca and Egypt. Mostly displaying a
confidence in his position in tradition literature which is characterized
by a large measure of credulity and which is therefore, in my opinion, on
the whole untenable, other researchers have come to divergent appraisals
of Nafi¨48. Besides, his reported traditions from Ibn Ümar show hardly
any overlap, which one might have expected to exist, with those of the
son of his patron, Salim b. Äbd Allah b. Ümar (d. 106-8/724-6) on his
father's authority. One may well ask why that is so. It is reported that
Nafi¨ allegedly only started transmitting his patron's traditions after
Salim's demise49. The absence of considerable overlap indicates in any
case that neither Salim nor Nafi¨ can therefore be considered to be re-
sponsible for their Ibn Ümar-supported traditions, as if that was not yet
eminently clear, but only those late cls emerging in traditions supported
by Salim/Ibn Ümar and Nafi¨/Ibn Ümar bundles. Another mawla of Ibn
Ümar, Äbd Allah b. Dinar (d. 127/745), figures in bundles as seeming
alternative for Nafi¨. Also Zayd b. Aslam should be mentioned in this
context: he is labeled as a mawla of Äbd Allah b. Ümar as well as one
of his father. But in view of his year of death (136/753) that must be a
simple mistake. Had he been a mawla also of Ümar, then that would
have placed him automatically in the category of muämmarun, in which
he is however never listed.
The mawla Ämr b. Dinar, a mufti of Mecca, who died in 126/744, is
found occasionally in bundles in which he is, or just seems, the cl. An-
other ‘prolific' transmitter of Prophetic traditions from Mecca, is the
mawla Abu ‘z-Zubayr MuÌammad b. Muslim b. Tadrus, who also
died in 126/744. After an evaluation of all the isnad bundles in which he
occurred, it emerged that he was never cl, but quite a few of allegedly
direct transmitters from him, all considerably much younger than he, are
indeed found to be so. He came in particularly ‘handy' by forming a
48
A survey of Malik/Nafi¨/Ibn Ümar/Prophet traditions with Malik as cl is given
in G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, Nafi¨, the mawla of Ibn Ümar, and his position in Muslim
Ìadith literature, in Der Islam, 70 (1993), p. 207-244. Furthermore, see G.H.A. JUYN-
BOLL, Encyclopaedia of Îadith (forthcoming), esp. the chapter on Malik as from the
nos. 8321 sqq. in al-Mizzi, TuÌfat, VI. And for an overview of the Nafi¨ phenomenon,
cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. Nafi¨, in EI 2. See furthermore G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, (Re)ap-
praisal of some technical terms in Ìadith science, in ILS, 8, 3 (2001), p. 303-349. On the
other hand, quite unexpectedly, M. Schöller seems to identify Nafi¨, the mawla, with
Nafi¨ b. Ümar (d. 169/785), the transmitter listed in Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, X, no. 732, cf.
M. SCHÖLLER, Die Palmen (lina) der Banu n-Na∂ir und die Interpretation von Koran
59:5, in ZDMG, 146 (1996), p. 341, line 12, on an otherwise non-canonical cluster of tra-
ditions.
49
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, IV, 462.
368 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
convenient bridge between one of those typically longeval Companions

in the Îijaz, to whom so many traditions were projected, Jabir b. Äbd
Allah (d. 73/692, 77/696 or 78/697). Accepting the latter's role as the
purveyor of Prophetic sayings and rulings requires once more a generous
dose of credulity, of which many researchers in Ìadith may not find
themselves capable. Another mawla forming a seemingly convenient
link between Jabir and a prolific cl, the Kufan mawla A¨mash (see be-
low) is Abu Sufyan ™alÌa b. Nafi¨50, (d.?), while the Kufan mawla-
cum-cl Zakariyyaˆ b. Abi Zaîda (d. 147-9/764-6) placed the Arab
Sha¨bi between himself and Jabir in strands traced back to the Prophet.
Rabiä b. Abi Äbd ar-RaÌman, nicknamed Rabiät ar-Raˆy51 (d.
133/751 or 136/754 or 142/759), was a mawla who, according to the
mawla Sufyan b. Üyayna, was the first to use his raˆy in Medina52. This
is demonstrable nonsens: the famous fuqahaˆ of Medina, who were all
older than Rabiä, were also aÒÌab raˆy. The best-known legal ruling
with which, on the basis of isnad analysis, Rabiä can be associated is
äzl, i.e. coitus interruptus, early Islam's established method of birth-
control. Following a malicious slander of the mawla Abu ‘z-Zinad Äbd
Allah b. Dhakwan (d. 130/748), the governor in Medina had Rabiä
flogged and he had half of his hair and beard shaved off53.
Musa b. Üqba (d. 141/758) was a Medinese mawla who was alleg-
edly famous for his expertise in maghazi. He enjoyed especially the ad-
miration of Malik b. Anas who is reported to have said that, even at an
advanced age, Musa collected akhbar on a particular subject that were
the most reliable of all54, while he did not go to such extremes in it as
‘someone else' did, a remark which we may interpret as a barely con-
cealed swipe at Ibn IsÌaq (see below), Malik's archenemy. Together
with his older brothers Ibrahim and MuÌammad, Musa b. Üqba had a
50
He is said to have transmitted from Jabir a script (Ar.: ÒaÌifa). Furthermore, Ibn
Îajar lists four traditions he is said to have heard from Jabir, all supported by spiders and
ss's, cf. Tahdhib, V, p. 27.
51
Malik is recorded to have said: ‘When Rabiä died, the sweetness (Ar.: Ìilawa) of
fiqh disappeared', cf. MuÌammad az-Zurqani, SharÌ äla Muwa††a’ al-imam Malik, Cairo,
1954, III, p. 180.
52
Cf. Ya¨qub b. Sufyan al-Fasawi, Kitab al-ma¨rifa wa ¨t-ta’rikh, ed. Akram ∆iya’ al-
Ümari, Baghdad, 1974-1976, III, p. 21 (= Fasawi, Kitab al-ma¨rifa).
53
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VI, p. 91, Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, III, p. 259.
54
Reliability in maghazi was particularly important because accounts of the cam-
paigns, among other data, confirmed, or the case so being denied, someone's participation
in early battles like Badr and UÌud, a circumstance which determined his annual stipend
from the public coffers. In this respect the maghazi traditions of the mawla Abu Sa¨d
ShuraÌbil b. Sa¨d (and not b. Saïd as in F. SEZGIN, Geschichte des arabischen
Schrifttums, Leiden, 1967, I, p. 279) were deemed suspect, cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, X,
p. 361.
circle of pupils in the mosque of Medina. Even so, Musa's tradition

transmission in general was open to considerable doubt, which is ex-
pressed in the rijal lexicons.
Ibn Jurayj. Äbd al-Malik b. Äbd al-Äziz55 b. Jurayj, usually called
by his grandfather's name, was a mawla of the Banu Umayya56. He is
said to have died in 150/767 when he was in his seventies57. As his name
(George) already suggests, he was of Byzantine extraction, his grandfa-
ther being a slave from Rum. Ibn Jurayj went to live in Mecca. The Suc-
cessor Ä†aˆ b. Abi RabaÌ whom we met above and with whom he is
said to have studied Ìadith for many years, is reported to have described
him as the leader of the young men of the Îijaz (Ar.: sayyid shibab ahl
al-Îijaz58). Later in life he is occasionally mentioned as having spent
some time in various places in Iraq and Syria. He is credited with having
been one of the very first collectors who possessed written records (for
which is used the technical term tadwin59), the contents of which he ar-
ranged in fiqh chapters (Ar.: taÒnif)60. The somewhat coquettish remark
is attributed to him: ma dawwana ‘l-ïlma tadwini aÌadun, i.e. “Nobody
registered this material as I have done.” He upheld the legality of the
temporary marriage (Ar.: mutä) and, as a consequence, had relations
with seventy61 women62. There is little overall originality in the matns
for which he is, or seems, responsible. It could be established from bun-
dle analysis in Mz. that, in all, only some fifty traditions may conceiv-
55
A report belonging to the awa’il genre has it that the first man to be given the name
Äbd al-Äziz was the son of the Umayyad caliph Marwan b. al-Îakam, cf. Ibn Abi
Shayba, MuÒannaf., XIV, p. 143.
56
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, VI, p. 402.
57
Reports claiming that he died while more than one hundred years old are to be re-
jected, cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VI, p. 332.
58
Cf. Ibn Ädi, Al-kamil, III, p. 265. In al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, XVIII, p. 347, it says in an
anecdote that Ä†a’ b. Abi RabaÌ was asked to whom the people should go for (legal?)
advice after his death. He is reported to have said: ‘Try that boy (Ar. fata), if he is still
around.’ So Ibn Jurayj supposedly dying in his seventies is probably a somewhat inflated
figure.
59
Cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. tadwin, in EI 2 and cf. al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, XVIII, p. 347.
In Dhahabi, Siyar, VI, p. 329, we find an anecdote about the Äbbasid caliph ManÒur who
once paid a visit to Mecca. When he was shown Ibn Jurayj’s records, he is alleged to have
said: ‘But for the stuffing how wonderful all this looks!’ The word ‘stuffing’ (Ar.:
Ìashw) is glossed as the technical terms in the transmission such as balaghani, i.e. ‘it has
reached me’, and Ìuddithtu, i.e. ‘I was informed’. One may be excused, however, for be-
ing reminded of the derogatory nickname Îashwiyya which was in general use to indicate
the collectors of Ìadith. For more on this appellative, see EI 2, s.n. (ed.).
60
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VI, p. 328.
61
Also other figures are mentioned: sixty in Dhahabi, Siyar VI, p. 331, and
ninety, cf. p. 333.
62
Cf. Dhahabi, Mizan, II, p. 659.
370 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
ably be ascribed to him, not a staggering figure for someone who was
allegedly so proud of his collecting method. But together with the
mawali Äbd Allah b. Dinar and Ämr b. Dinar (mentioned above) as
well as the Arab YaÌya b. Saïd al-AnÒari (d.143/760 or 144/761), he is
the oldest cl to emerge in Îijazi isnad bundles after Zuhri. Ibn Jurayj
occupies a place in several bundles supporting traditions that can be
traced back to ancient or contemporary discussions, which mostly deal
with religious rituals. One strand in which he figures: Ibn Jurayj/ Abu
‘z-Zubayr MuÌammad b. Muslim b. Tadrus/Jabir b. Äbd Allah (see
above), was particularly popular with later traditionists. Thus we do not
only find a number of traditions63 supported by bundles, spidery or oth-
erwise, ending in this strand in which Ibn Jurayj is cl or seeming cl, but
also dozens of traditions supported by ss's ending in these three names.
It was especially Muslim who made ample use of this ss for his — what
is called with a technical term — shawahid, presumably in order to
strengthen his supply of bundle-supported traditions of identical, or
comparable, import64.
Ibn Jurayj's reputation with his fellow-traditionists was on the whole
very good, but for his occasional omission of the name of an alleged
teacher, something for which he was taken to task. However, his bio-
graphical notice in the rijal lexicons is marred by two surprisingly dis-
paraging remarks ascribed to two younger contemporaries: (1) Ibn
Jurayj is a ÒaÌib ghuthaˆ, ‘a man gathering floating débris', according to
the BaÒran traditionist Yazid b. Zuray¨ (d. 182/798), and (2) Ibn Jurayj is
a nocturnal gatherer of firewood, a Ìa†ib layl, according to Malik b.
Anas. These negative qualifications, both vented by Arab-born Ìadith
collectors, had probably originated in jealousy and/or rivalry65. Besides,
Malik b. Anas may have been furious with his BaÒran colleague-cum-
imitator66, the mawla YaÌya b. Saïd al-Qa††an (d. 198/814), for airing
the opinion that, according to him, Ibn Jurayj was even more reliable in
Nafi¨ traditions than Malik67, a remark so preposterous that it can be
labeled as a mere, unsubstantiated jibe. It is in any case not borne out by
Ibn Jurayj's Nafi¨ traditions that found a place in the canonical collec-
63
al-Mizzi, TuÌfat, II, nos. 2795-2835.
64
Cf. al-Mizzi, TuÌfat, II, nos. 2837-67. For the technical term shawahid, often used
in tandem with the term mutabiät, see G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, (Re)appraisal of some technical
terms in Ìadith science, in ILS, 8, 3 (2001), p. 303-349.
65
Cf. al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, XVIII, p. 349.
66
For more on YaÌya’s role as imitator of Malik’s traditions, see G.H.A. JUYNBOLL,
Nafi¨, the mawla of Ibn Ümar, and his position in Muslim Ìadith literature, in Der Islam,
70 (1993), p. 233.
67
Cf. al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, p. 348, lines 5 sqq.
tions, most of which are supported by spiders and ss's68. There is only
one such tradition in which Ibn Jurayj could conceivably be taken as its
(seeming) cl69.
Mawali outside the Îijaz
Looking in the first place at Kufa, there is Saïd b. Jubayr (d. 94/
713). He was another one of those mawali who occurs particularly fre-
quently in isnad strands, but who can nowhere be identified as cl in
those bundles in which he occurs. In those we only find cls that are twice
removed: A¨mash and Shu¨ba as well as some transmitters associated
with the ‘Wasi†-connection'70. Many tafsir traditions were projected
back onto Ibn Äbbas via Saïd b. Jubayr, but these projections are all
late ss's and spiders which do not show up early cls. In sum: he seems a
well-known mawla who reportedly became famous in Ìadith matters
long after his execution by Îajjaj because of his participation in the re-
bellion of Ibn al-Ashäth. In other words: his Ìadith fame is entirely arti-
ficial, the result of wholesale back-projection. But legendary stories
meant to underbuild his importance, especially his contacts with his
‘master' Ibn Äbbas, are legion. Thus he is depicted as occasionally writ-
ing Ibn Äbbas' traditions down on the soles of his sandals or the back of
his hand when no other writing material was available71.
Al-Îakam b. Ütayba (d. 114-5/732-3) a mawla from Kufa, who was
born in the same year, 47/667, as the Arab Ibrahim an-Nakhaï (d. 96/
715). When he was in Mina for the Ìajj ceremonies, people flocked to
him, since he was regarded to be on a par with Ä†aˆ b. Abi RabaÌ72.
With the mawla Îasan al-BaÒri — see further down — he is the first
person in Islam to be identified with the sunna party, the proto-sunnites,
who were to evolve within the ranks of the orthodox faction of Islam,
the ahl as-sunna73.
Îammad b. Abi Sulayman, a mawla and faqih from Kufa. He did
not transmit many traditions because he died already in 120/738 and that
was before the awan ar-riwaya, as it says in a source74, a chronological
68
Cf. al-Mizzi, TuÌfat, VI, nos. 7775-87.
69
Cf. no. 7775.
70
For what is meant with the expression ‘Wasi† connection’, see G.H.A. JUYNBOLL,
Shu¨ba b. al-Îajjaj (d. 160/776) and his position among the traditionists of BaÒra, in Le
Muséon, 111 (1998), p. 225 sqq.
71
Cf. Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, VI, p. 257.
72
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, V, 212.
73
Cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. sunna, in EI 2.
74
372 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
indication which I interpret as: before the time Ìadith transmission

proper took shape. This indication of time is one of those ultra-rare ex-
amples from which becomes clear that Ìadith transmission was not al-
ways, or by everyone, thought to have started as early as was generally
conceived, namely directly after the Prophet's death. He was otherwise
not free from muddleheadedness when confronted with traditions, but
with pure fiqh matters he displayed a great affinity. Occasionally, while
transmitting traditions, he suffered an epilectic fit or a diabolical seizure.
He was very rich and, especially after the fast on the occasion of the fi†r
feast, he gave numerous people wealthy presents. He was generally
poked fun of75. His principal master in fiqh matters was Ibrahim an-
Nakhaï and he turned out to be his star pupil but, even so, what he re-
lated on the authority of his master was sometimes doubted as fallacious
or erroneous76. He did not transmit from Anas according to Mz., nor
from any other Companion. The relevance of this remark will become
clear below, when the mawla Shu¨ba is discussed.
Another Kufan mawla, not in any meaningful way connected with the
transmission of Ìadith, was Abu Îanifa (d. 150/767). He is recorded to
have said: ‘Among the people I met personally, there was no one more
reliable than Ä†aˆ b. Abi RabaÌ and among the mendacious there was no
one more mendacious than [the Arab sympathizer of the Shiä] Jabir b.
Yazid al-Ju¨fi (d. 128-32); when I approached the latter with something
derived from my raˆy, he always retorted with a spurious athar77'. But
his purported role in Ìadith is largely artificial and historically tenuous.
In fact, Abu Îanifa did not care about Ìadith78, in spite of several
musnads of alleged traditions later attributed to him to appease angrily
critical remarks at the hands of his Iraqi contemporaries, to whom his in-
difference towards Ìadith was anathema.
First and foremost among the cls of Kufa is the mawla Sulayman b.
Mihran mostly known as al-A¨mash, i.e. the bleary-eyed79. He was
born in 59/679 or 61/681 and he died in 147 or 148/764-5. He was a
mawla of the Banu Kahil, a clan of the Banu Asad, who was brought as
a captive from ™abaristan to Kufa where he was purchased and subse-
quently set free. He is described as an ill-natured man with a difficult
75
Idem, p. 231-238.
76
Cf. al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, VII, p. 276.
77
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, VII, p. 201.
78
Cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, Muslim tradition. Studies in chronology, provenance and
authorship of early Ìadith, Cambridge 1983, p. 119-24 (= JUYNBOLL, Muslim tradition).
79
When his memory in the case of a certain Ìadith momentarily failed him, he went
to sit in the sun and rubbed his eyes until it came back to him, cf. Abu Nuäym, Îilyat, V,
p. 47.
disposition. He occurs in isnads as al-A¨mash, Sulayman al-A¨mash or

simply as Sulayman80. Shu¨ba called him al-MuÒÌaf because of his vast
expertise in the Qurân. A¨mash became one of Kufa's recognized mas-
ters of Ìadith, especially the ones traced back to the Companion Äbd
Allah b. Masüd. His most celebrated isnad strand to that Companion
was via Ibrahim an-Nakhaï to Älqama, alongside others via this
Ibrahim to other ‘members' from the so-called ‘school' or ‘circle' of Ibn
Masüd. But these strands may in the end have been a bit too laborious
in his eyes: it struck him that they could effectively be shortened by one
person, if an especially longeval one were to be inserted at some place.
A¨mash was in all likelihood a consummate imitator of the Arab Sha¨bi
in the latter's use of a reputedly very old Ìadith master, the Companion
Ädi b. Îatim (d. 68/688), the son of the proverbially hospitable chief-
tain of the ™ayy. Inspired by this, A¨mash created the personae of some
more of these longeval masters, supposedly blessed by God with excep-
tionally advanced ages, the so-called muämmarun. It is fair to assume
that A¨mash may be responsible for the launching of the obscure —
probably fictitious — Zayd b. Wahb and Ma¨rur b. Suwayd, and he
made extensive use of traditions allegedly transmitted by a muämmar
whose historicity — be it not his alleged age at death — is at least ten-
able, Abu Waîl Shaqiq b. Salama. Each of these three imaginary, or the
case so being historical, figures bridged the time gap between A¨mash's
own time all the way to that of Ibn Masüd because of the advanced ages
they were reported to have reached at death, well over one hundred
years81.
A¨mash's reputation with the early rijal experts appeared to be a
checkered one82. When the consummate rijal expert, the mawla YaÌya
b. Maïn (d. 233/848), was once asked to compare him with Zuhri,
YaÌya preferred A¨mash, because he observed more strict transmission
procedures than Zuhri and he did not let himself be exploited by the au-
thorities as Zuhri had been used by the Umayyads83. Between him and
another transmitter, his fellow-Kufan, the Arab ManÒur b. al-Mu¨tamir
80
This last possibility has occasionally led with the unwary to confusion of A¨mash
with another Sulayman: the Arab Sulayman b. ™arkhan at-Taymi, a BaÒran transmitter
who died in 143/760.
81
For a detailed study of the muämmarun phenomenon, see G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art.
muämmarun, in EI 2 and G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, The role of muämmarun in the early devel-
opment of the isnad, in Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 81 (1991),
p. 155-175.
82
For a survey, see JUYNBOLL, Muslim tradition, p. 171-175, and Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib,
IV, p. 222-6, Kha†ib, Ta’rikh, IX, p. 3-13.
83
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, IV, p. 225, 13 sqq., and also M. LECKER, Biographical
notes on Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, in JNES, 41 (1996), p. 21-63.
374 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
(d. 132/750), something resembling rivalry can be visualized. They oc-

cur very often together in the same isnad bundle, each with a compara-
ble, sometimes partially overlapping, set of partial cls, so the authorship
of the tradition which that bundle is supposed to authenticate cannot be
established in terms less vague than saying that the one may have copied
the tradition from the other by means of a dive84. Distinguishing within
the hundreds of Kufan bundles between whose is A¨mash's and whose is
ManÒur's is no sinecure. This A¨mash/ManÒur rivalry is subtly reflected
in the words ascribed to a younger Kufan colleague: it is reported that
Thawri once said that every time he related a tradition to A¨mash on the
authority of a certain Kufan master, he would refuse to accept it, only in
the case when I mentioned ManÒur, he would remain silent85. Is this to
be interpreted that A¨mash realized that in ManÒur he had a fellow-
traditionist to be reckoned with, albeit grudgingly? And the above-
mentioned YaÌya b. Maïn openly preferred ManÒur's traditions which
he claimed to have heard from Ibrahim an-Nakhaï to those A¨mash
claimed to have learned from him86. One is almost inclined to think that
the transmitters after A¨mash and ManÒur chose to side with the one
rather than the other, or vice-versa, thus illustrating the purported rivalry
between the two, a mawla and an Arab. A¨mash was also praised for his
knowledge of faraî∂, the Qurânic inheritance portions.
Ismaïl b. Abi Khalid, a mawla of the AÌmas clan of the Bajila. The
nisbas al-AÌmasi and al-Bajali turn up often in the isnad strands of his
making, and we will also find references to that clan and tribe in certain
matns in Ismaïl-related traditions. He was an active traditionist and cl in
Kufa where he died in 145 or 146/762-387 and he is said to have begun
collecting traditions two years before his fellow-Kufan and contempo-
rary A¨mash88. He even seems associated with a history book, a Kitab
ÒaÌiÌ at-taˆrikh89, but whether it was his does not become clear from the
context. He was a second generation Successor: among the late Com-
panions from whom he is said to have transmitted traditions were several
of the longest living of Kufa: Äbd Allah b. Abi Awfa, who was the last
Companion to die in Kufa in 86-7/705-6, Ämr b. Îurayth (d. 85/704)
and Abu JuÌayfa Wahb b. Äbd Allah (d. 74/693). Alongside these
84
Perhaps a rare glimpse of A¨mash diving for a tradition of ManÒur is contained in a
report in Fasawi, Kitab al-ma¨rifa, II, p. 647, lines 2 sqq.
85
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, X, p. 313, 11 sqq.
86
Ibidem, p. 314, 8, 10 sqq.
87
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, I, p. 291 sqq.
88
Cf. Äbd Allah b. MuÌammad al-Baghawi, Al-Ja¨diyyat, ed. R.F. Äbd al-Mu††alib,
Cairo 1994, I, p. 222.
89
Cf. Ibn Îajar, FatÌ, IX, p. 136, line 12.
Companions Ismaïl made frequent use, like A¨mash, of some especially

longeval successors, the muämmarun and, again like A¨mash, he ‘mo-
nopolized'90 one muämmar in particular, Qays b. Abi Îazim, reported
to have died some time between 84/703 and 98/716, whose persona,
inspite of the copious biographical data found about him in the rijal
works, is so obscure that the well-nigh inescapable conclusion presents
itself that he was an invention of Ismaïl. It is said that Qays was from
the AÌmas clan of Bajila, bearing in fact the same nisbas as Ismaïl91.
Apart from these long-living authorities, Ismaïl is particularly well-
known for numerous traditions which he is said to have received from
the Arab Sha¨bi. His role as cl is perhaps also reflected in his being
labeled as ÒaÌib sunna92. Two figures indicating his overall tradition out-
put are preserved: 300 and 500, but the historicity of such figures is hard
to maintain. In the canonical collections Ismaïl emerges as a cl respon-
sible for a good number of traditions. In historical works such as
™abari's Annales Ismaïl is the frequent purveyor of akhbar. His fame
led with later traditionists to the invention of innumerable ss's featuring
Ismaïl, more often than not with Qays b. Abi Îazim and/or other
AÌmasis and Bajalis in the strand down to the Prophet, which are dis-
cernible superimposed upon bundles with other cls or standing quite
alone by themselves.
Mawali in BaÒra
MuÌammad b. Sirin (34/654-110/728), BaÒra, a mawla of Anas b.

Malik. He is very often referred to in isnads as Ibn Sirin or even merely
MuÌammad by his closest associates especially (Äbd Allah) Ibn Äwn
(cf. below). He was allegedly hard of hearing. He is reported to have fa-
90
This is indicated in Arabic by the words akthara änhu, which we occasionally find
in certain master/pupil ‘relationships’.
91
For a study of Ismaïl’s handling of muämmarun complete with his own nisbas, see
G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, The role of muämmarun in the early development of the isnad, in
Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 81 (1991), p. 165. Curiously, al-
though it is implied in most tarjamas that Qays was an Arab, Sufyan b. Üyayna is
quoted in Ibn Îajar, FatÌ, VII, p. 420 sqq., claiming that he was in fact a mawla of
the AÌmas clan. Occasionally Qays’ position in an Ismaïl strand seems to have been
exchanged for someone else, a mawla, see Ibn al-Mubarak, Kitab al-jihad, ed. by
Nazih Îammad, Tunis, 1972, no. 107. The mawla and rijal expert Äli ibn al-Madini
thought absolutely nothing of Qays and qualified him as a nomad who urinates on
his heels, a truly derogatory expression, cf. Kha†ib, Ta’rikh, XI, p. 466.
92
For this label and the ubiquitous ‘coincidence’ that a ÒaÌib sunna is at the same
time found to be a cl, see G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, An excursus on the ahl al-sunna in connec-
tion with Van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft, vol. IV, in Der Islam, 125 (1998), p. 318-
330.
376 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
thered with one wife thirty children, only one of whom lived to be an
adult. The qa∂i Sawwar b. Äbd Allah (d. 156/773), who was himself of
Arab stock, is said to have declared that Ibn Sirin and Îasan, both
mawali, were the true masters (sayyidani) of the inhabitants of BaÒra, its
Arabs as well as its mawali93. For his alleged expertise as interpreter of
dreams, see EI 2, s.n. Although very frequently occurring in isnads, he is
hardly ever in a position that can safely be identified as (seeming) cl.
Another crucially important mawla active in BaÒra, even in the func-
tion of qa∂i, is Îasan al-BaÒri, in whose write-up in the sources we en-
counter the topical honorific sayyid or shaykh ahl al-BaÒra or ahl
zamanihi. His role as transmitter may seem at the first glance consider-
able, but is in the final analysis negligible, for his occurrence in numer-
ous strands constitute mere inserts achieved at the hands of later trans-
mitters. If he had been any sort of transmitter, it is incomprehensible that
he nowhere turns up as cl. And taking his convenient life span in consid-
eration, the total absence of credible transmission of Îasan from Anas b.
Malik within BaÒran Ìadith transmission confirms Anas' role in Ìadith
as artificial94 and thus also Îasan's. Îammad b. Zayd reported that the
mawali Îumayd a†-™awil and Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani used to threaten to
expose him with his ideas on qadar to the local authorities95, whereupon
he is said to have abandoned them. On the whole the traditions in whose
isnads he figures were suspect and subsequently shunned by most96. As
for his ‘contacts' with other Companions, with a strand through Îasan to
the Companion Samura b. Jundab quite a few maxim-like statements of
Îasan and earlier legal authorities such as the qa∂i ShurayÌ have been
granted the status of marfuät for whose wording the blind Arab Qatada
b. Diäma is largely responsible. By not incorporating a single one of
these, Bukhari and Muslim seem to demonstrate their suspicion concern-
ing them.
Ayyub b. Abi Tamima as-Sakhtiyani, a mawla, who died in 131/
749. Because of his supposed learning, Îasan al-BaÒri called him the
sayyid al-fityan, i.e. the leader of the lads97. Among the transmitters in
the bundles in which he occurs we often find as his clear partial cls the
mawali Îammad b. Zayd and Ibn Ülayya (see below), whereby it is
hard to decide whether or not the transmission from him is historical or
93
Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, VII, p. 197.
94
Cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, Shu¨ba b. al-Îajjaj (d. 160/776) and his position among the
traditionists of BaÒra, in Le Muséon, 111 (1998), esp. p. 205-210.
95
Dhahabi, Siyar, IV, p. 580.
96
97
‘attributed'. Especially his alleged transmission from Nafi¨, the mawla of

Ibn Ümar, is untenable. He is furthermore called the intellectual succes-
sor to Îasan al-BaÒri and Ibn Sirin as is witnessed in numerous
mawqufat.
Îumayd b. Abi Îumayd a†-™awil98, a mawla from BaÒra, who was
born in 68/688 and died in 142-3/759-60. Äbd ar-RaÌman b. Yusuf Ibn
Ëhirash, the rabid Rafi∂ite-cum-rijal expert (d. 283/896 in Baghdad99),
stated that the majority of his traditions allegedly heard from Anas b.
Malik were in fact all transmitted via Thabit al-Bunani, but he was not
blamed for that, because this form of tadlis involved a thiqa, for what-
ever that vacuous (editor's) remark is worth. Îammad b. Salama makes
the same claim100. His Thabit/Anas-supported traditions as compared
with those he claimed he heard directly from Anas yield the following
data: his direct transmissions from Anas are all ss's or very late spiders,
and those he is said to have transmitted from Anas via Thabit do show
up various cls101.
Äbd Allah b. Äwn, d. 151/768, a BaÒran mawla and cl who, when
he had married an Arab woman, was flogged by the BaÒran governor-
cum-qa∂i Bilal b. Abi Burda102. He had a private prayer site in his house
which had no miÌrab, where he led the people in communal prayers,
while a mawla of his uttered the adhan. He was the sayyid of the Qurân
reciters of his days103. He is one of those people who emerges as a far
less prominent traditionist than might have been expected on the basis of
the attention paid him in the rijal lexicons. He was well-known for his
restraint: he never raised his voice.
Saïd b. Abi Äruba, (d. 156-7/773-4), a mawla and cl from BaÒra.
Ibn Îanbal mentioned his tadlis as particularly pernicious104. He trans-
mitted from nine famous transmitters without ever having heard one sin-
gle tradition with them. He was supposedly the first to write traditions
down in an orderly fashion: Òannafa sunan nabawiyya105. Very many
cases of his sama¨ from Ìadith masters were doubted: he simply said än
but that appeared to be patently incorrect106.
98
He was not a tall man, as this name seems to suggest, but he was called thus to dis-
tinguish him from his neighbour called Îumayd too. He is also described as having ex-
ceptionally long arms, cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, III, p. 38.
99
Cf. JUYNBOLL, Muslim tradition, p. 240.
100
101
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VI, pp. 163-8.
102
Cf. Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, VII, 261-8.
103
Cf. MuÌammad b. AÌmad adh-Dhahabi, Ta’rikh al-islam, ed. Ümar Äbd as-
Salam Tadmuri, Beirut, 1987-1999, IX, p. 463.
104
Al-Kha†ib al-Baghdadi, Al-kifaya fi ïlm ar-riwaya, Hyderabad, 1357, p. 358.
105
106
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VI, p. 415 sqq.
378 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
Îammad b. Salama, d. 167/784 from BaÒra, a mawla of Al Rabiä b.

Malik and a nephew of Îumayd a†-™awil. His traditions were so much
sought after that a man, who had recently returned from a journey to
China with a present for Îammad, was given the choice by the latter:
‘Either I accept your present, but then I won't relate traditions to you, or
I won't accept it in which case I will transmit traditions to you.' There-
upon the man said: ‘So do not accept the present, that I may hear your
traditions107.' He was thought to be one of the Iraqi abdal108. A charac-
teristic of abdal was thought to be that they did not father children,
Well, it is reported that Îammad married seventy wives who all failed to
bear him children109.
The mawla Shu¨ba b. al-Îajjaj was born ca. 82/702110 in Wasi†, a
city at equal distances from Kufa and BaÒra built by Îajjaj b. Yusuf in
the years 84-86/703-5. His father is said to have helped in the building
of Îajjaj's palace111. After having settled in BaÒra at an early age,
Shu¨ba died there of the plague as all the sources agree in 160/776. He is
BaÒra's most eminent and prolific cl by far. He brought hundreds of tra-
ditions into circulation, even more than his older Kufan counterpart
A¨mash. In total output there is only one other cl who can be compared
with him, that is the Arab Malik b. Anas. But Shu¨ba's wording of a host
of traditions is far more original that that of his Medinese colleague, who
appeared to have let himself be inspired often by Iraqi, especially
BaÒran, examples. His position among his fellow traditionists is particu-
larly important. In the first place it is he who provided BaÒra with a
transmitter whose life span stretched back far enough to bridge the entire
first/seventh century. Where Kufa, through the inventiveness of A¨mash
and Ismaïl b. Abi Khalid, had had their muämmarun Successors to fill
in the time between the Arab Companion Ibn Masüd (d. 32/653) and
themselves, BaÒra acquired in Anas b. Malik even a Companion living
long enough to fill almost the entire first/seventh century by himself.
There may have been an old man called Anas b. Malik living in BaÒra
towards the end of that century, the brilliant idea to provide that man
with the identity of a real Companion who had lived in MuÌammad's
vicinity and who could be expected to relate all sorts of interesting de-
tails about the Prophet's life was clearly due to Shu¨ba. He thus created
an isnad strand of one single transmitter from MuÌammad's lifetime to
107
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VII, p. 449.
108
A class of saints living on earth, cf. GOLDZIHER, art. abdal, in EI 2.
109
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, III, p. 13.
110
Abu Bakr b. Manjawayh in al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, XII, p. 495.
111
Cf. al-Mizzi, Tahdhib, XXX, p. 280.
practically the beginning of the second/eighth century. In order to sub-

stantiate his claim that Anas had lived as servant in the household of the
Prophet, Shu¨ba brought a tradition into circulation in which Anas's
early birth was firmly established, while everybody had seen him die in
93/712. He furthermore introduced a series of fa∂aîl traditions singing
the praises of Anas's tribal background, thus definitively putting the
AnÒar on the map. Next to a range of other special subjects, such as the
fight — o irony! — against mendacity in Ìadith, Shu¨ba can also be held
responsible for a tradition containing one of the basic principles of the
budding religio/political party of what we now call the first sunnites. Fi-
nally, Islam has to thank him for initiating the science of rijal criticism
which he is widely reported to have been the first traditionist to practise.
How he went about his Ìadith activities is described in detail in a special
study112. Shu¨ba's successors in rijal expertise were generally thought to
be the mawali Wuhayb b. Khalid (d. 165/782)113 and YaÌya b. Saïd
al-Qa††an (d. 198/814)114.
Îammad b. Zayd was a blind mawla who lived in BaÒra. When he
died in 179/795 the Arab Yazid b. Zuray¨ (d. 182/798) is supposed to
have said: ‘Today the sayyid al-muslimin has died115'. Asked whether
the aÒÌab al-Ìadith were referred to in the Qurân, Îammad said: ‘Yes,
in verse 122 of sura IX116: ‘… is there not a small contingent of every
group (of nomads117) who go forth (sc. to Medina) in order to be in-
structed in the religion that they might warn those (sc. of their brethren
who stayed behind) when they return to these?', the small contingent
(†aîfa) is a reference to the aÒÌab al-Ìadith.' This exegesis is found no-
where in any of the early works on tafsir118.
Ibn Ülayya, Ismaïl b. Ibrahim b. Miqsam (d. 193/809), is a mawla
who was usually called after his mother Ülayya, just like his son
Ibrahim (d. 218/833). Ibn Ülayya sr is very often cl in bundles with
Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani as seeming cl with or without Îammad b. Zayd as
primary or secondary cl. Although the rijal lexicons do not say so in so
many words, Îammad's and Ibn Ülayya's leaning on certain ‘shared'
masters like Ayyub, may give the impression of rivalry. Also the blind
112
traditionists of BaÒra, in Le Muséon, 111 (1998), p. 187-226.
113
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar VIII, p. 224.
114
Cf. JUYNBOLL, Muslim tradition, p. 238.
115
116
See R. Paret, Sure 9, 122 und der Gihad, in WI, n.s. 2 (1953), p. 232-236.
117
Rather than that the entire tribe descends upon Medina en bloc to embrace Islam
and share in the profits generated by booty.
118
380 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
mawla Äbd al-Äziz b. ∑uhayb (d. 130/748) from BaÒra is found as ar-
tificial cl in traditions which might be attributed to either Îammad b.
Zayd or to Ibn Ülayya.
A†-™ayalisi, Abu Dawud Sulayman b. Dawud, is a mawla from
BaÒra. There are numerous traditions which he probably incorporated in
his collection, but which did not make it to the well-known Hyderabad
1321 edition of his Musnad currently available119. There is, however, no
reason to assume that they therefore never were part of the huge collec-
tion of traditions with which he is credited in the sources. The numbers
30,000 and 40,000 are cited120, figures which, if compared with the col-
lections of his peers Äzq. and IASh., are not at all improbable. His
Musnad as we have it now has the characteristics of a collection from
which the mawqufat, the mursalat and the aqwal, which were originally
in it, have been bowdlerized, i.e. carefully removed by an anonymous
transmitter sometime in the course of its transmission history. But also
traditions with marfu¨ strands are missing121.
Mawali in Syria and beyond
It is time to move away from Iraq and to inspect the situation in Syria
and beyond. MakÌul ad-Dimashqi, d. 112-4/730-2, is a mawla who
played no role of significance in Ìadith, although he boasted to have
traveled all over the world in search of knowledge. He could not pro-
nounce the letter qaf properly, saying kaf instead. Living in Syria, he
was only known for his fiqh and he was considered to be better versed in
it than Zuhri122. The mawla Maymun b. Mihran (d. 116/734 or 117/
735), was the main fiqh expert and a qa∂i in the Jazira, more or less on
the same level as MakÌul, Îasan and Zuhri123.
YaÌya b. Abi Kathir is a mawla of ™ayy, who originally hailed from
BaÒra and who emigrated first to Syria, then to the Îijaz, to end up fi-
nally in Yamama. He is said to have died in 129/747. His father is called
by the typical mawla name Dinar124. YaÌya is a cl in his own right. The
isnad bundles in which he figures show up several times what looks like
a competing cl: Zuhri. Detailed comparison of (parts of) the matns sup-
119
The other edition called MinÌat al-ma¨bud, organized on the basis of fiqh chapters
by AÌmad Äbd ar-RaÌman al-Banna (Cairo, 1372, reprinted in Beirut) does supposedly
only contain traditions found in the Hyderabad edition.
120
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, IV, p. 183 sqq.
121
See further G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, art. A†-™ayalisi, in EI 2, s.n.
122
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, V, p. 157 sqq.
123
124
Cf. Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, V, p. 555.
ported by such bundles for which either one, Zuhri or YaÌya, can be
held responsible displays something which very much resembles rivalry,
again an example of competition between a mawla and an Arab, the one
from Yamama and the other from the Îijaz/Syria125.
The overall number of cls from Syria is limited. Much later there
emerged a traditionist whose contribution to Ìadith literature is consider-
able, but who was generally thought to be unreliable, that is the cl al-
Walid b. Muslim (d. 194/810), a mawla, who is characterized as radiˆ
al-tadlis126, that means that he shocked his listeners with patently false
isnad information whilst confusing them with kunyas where he should
have used isms and vice-versa. But no one supposedly knew Syrian (i.e.
ÎimÒi) Ìadith better than he and the Arabs Ismaïl b. Äyyash (d. 181/
797) and Baqiyya b. al-Walid (d. 197/813). However, we must also re-
member that nobody seems to have doubted that al-Walid was a great
inventor of ÒaliÌ traditions with concocted isnad strands.
Äbd Allah b. al-Mubarak (d. 181/797, at age sixty-three), a mawla
of the B. Äbd Shams from the B. Sa¨d Taym or from the B. ÎanÂala127.
His mother was from Khwarizm and his father was a Turk. Ibn al-
Mubarak became a prominent theoretician among Islam's first sunnites.
His exposé on the qualification ÒaÌib sunna is the earliest of its kind
thus far unearthed128. He was an indefatigable traveler in search of
Ìadith, much more so than hordes of other, older transmitters described
as such. That is why it is difficult to associate him with one or two
Ìadith centres in particular. One book ascribed to him entitled Kitab az-
zuhd wa ‘r-raqaîq is full of peculiarities129. At a glance the Zuhd con-
tains few marfuät, a large number of mursalat and even more mawqufat
beside a number of traditions whose isnad strands are downright maq†u¨,
i.e. interrupted. Not all the strands mention Ibn al-Mubarak. Sometimes
the stream of Ibn al-Mubarak strands is interrupted by strands featuring
in his place other persons. At times these other persons sit then in tradi-
tions which are in fact variants of the immediately preceding Ibn al-
Mubarak traditions, at other times the break in the Ibn al-Mubarak texts
seems totally haphazard. Another book of Ibn al-Mubarak, his Kitab al-
125
For one particular instance, cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, Early Islamic society as re-
flected in its use of isnads, in Le Muséon, 107 (1994), p. 167-171.
126
Cf. Ibn Sa¨d, A†-†abaqat, IX, p. 212 sqq.
127
Cf. Kha†ib, Ta’rikh, X, p. 153.
128
Cf. G.H.A. JUYNBOLL, An excursus on the ahl al-sunna in connection with Van
Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft, vol. IV, in Der Islam, 125 (1998), p. 318-330.
129
Its edition by Îabib ar-RaÌman al-A¨Âami (Malagaon [1386]) is difficult to use for
its indexes are on the whole unreliable and their organization is idiosyncratic. The first
seven ajza’ are divided into babs, the four final ajza’ have to do without even that, as if
there was no space left for a more detailed chapter division, a lack of subdivision reminis-
cent of most of the later volumes in the first edition of Ibn Abi Shayba, MuÒannaf.
382 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
jihad, is available in a seemingly reliable edition (see above). From its

editor's extensive references to other sources one can gain the impres-
sion that most of Ibn al-Mubarak's traditions are his, only occasionally
showing up in much later sources (e.g. Îakim's Mustadrak, Abu
Nuäym's Îilya, Bayhaqi, etc.), and on the whole only sparingly in one
or a few of the canonical collections. There are precious few cls who are
definitely earlier than Ibn al-Mubarak, if one regards Malik, who makes
an occasional appearance, to be a contemporary.
Once more looking to the south, two more mawali active in Yaman
deserve to be mentioned together. Äbd ar-Razzaq aÒ-∑anäni (d. 211/
826) (Äzq.) is a mawla who lived in Yaman, where he is said to have
studied Ìadith with a Ìadith scholar, who originally hailed from BaÒra,
the mawla Ma¨mar b. Rashid (d. 152-3/769-70). The latter is generally
thought to be the compiler of a Ìadith collection, the Jami¨, which Äzq.
is believed to have incorporated wholesale in his own MuÒannaf. The
attribution of the Jami¨ to Ma¨mar is, however, questionable: extensive
isnad analysis of all the traditions in whose isnad strands Ma¨mar has
found a place resulted in the somewhat unexpected conclusion that not a
single one had Ma¨mar as cl and that the majority were simply the handi-
work of his ‘pupil' Äzq. Ma¨mar was, furthermore, quite often the desti-
nation of diving ss's launched by such figures as Ibn al-Mubarak and
several younger Ìadith colleagues. In sum, it could be established that
Ma¨mar is just famous for being singled out as the target of masses of
traditions with the wording and/or the transmission of which he himself
had nothing to do. An especially illustrative example of Äzq.'s ‘exer-
tions' in this connection is the so-called ÒaÌifa which the Successor
Hammam b. Munabbih (Wahb's brother) is claimed to have heard with
the Companion Abu Hurayra. The ÒaÌifa was incorporated wholesale
in Ibn Îanbal's Musnad130 and it was ‘edited' by Muhammad Hami-
dullah131. This scholar failed to appreciate — or deliberately chose to
ignore — the problem that the reported dates of death of its first three
transmitters, Abu Hurayra, Hammam and Ma¨mar, made it well-nigh
impossible to attribute to a transmission of this sort any historicity.
Some mawali in Baghdad
The more we progress in time, the greater is the number of mawali

active in the inventing and/or transmission of traditions as compared
130
Cairo, 1313, II, p. 312-319.
131
And translated into French by Hossein G. TOCHEPORT, Paris, 1979.
with that of Arabs. When we pass the halfway mark of the second/eighth
century, one almost wonders whether there were any Arabs participating
in it at all. Moving now to Baghdad, one famous Iraqi scholar should be
highlighted in that city, the historian MuÌammad b. IsÌaq. He was a
mawla who emigrated early in life (Ar.: qadiman) to Kufa, Jazira, Rayy
and Baghdad where he stayed until he died in 151/768132. He hailed
originally from Medina, but he left it early in life to live in Iraq, ending
up in Baghdad, where he hired himself out to the Äbbasids. Ibn IsÌaq is
not a traditionist per se, but rather a collector of historical akhbar with a
host of legal traditions mixed in. He may, or may not, be the inventor of
the family isnad, in any case his Sira is the earliest printed Islamic text
in which we find them used, a device promptly imitated by a number of
his fellow-traditionists such as Malik b. Anas and historians like Ibn
Sa¨d (see below). A famous family isnad he launched was the one via
Übada b. al-Walid/al-Walid b. Übada/Übada b. Sami†, which he at-
tached to a khabar on the first Äqaba meeting; a later partial cl, the
Arab YaÌya b. Saïd al-AnÒari (d. 144/761), possibly by order of the
Äbbasids, added a political statement to this khabar133. To another fam-
ily isnad: Äbd Allah b. Abi Bakr/Abu Bakr b. MuÌammad/MuÌammad
b. Ämr/Ämr b. Îazm, he attached a seemingly complete list of all his
legal traditions. Ibn IsÌaq, whose expertise in fiqh matters is commonly
attested, gives here in a concise list practically all the fiqh rules in the
dissemination of which he may be taken to have played a part. A provi-
sional scan of the Sira as to fiqh contents confirmed the abovementioned
rules as virtually the only issues raised there134. The grudge his younger
fellow Medinese Malik b. Anas bore him, in spite of the fact that Malik
may never have set eyes on him135, is well attested.
Then there is a transmitter who must be introduced at this point, the
mawla Hushaym b. Bashir (d. 183/799). Born in Wasi†, he moved to
Baghdad. Together with some others he helped to spread Wasi†-centred
traditions in order to provide that newly-founded city with its own pres-
132
133
‘We pledged allegiance to the Messenger of God to hearken and obey him, in diffi-
cult or easy times, while we are delighted or disgusted, even in (times of) deprivation; we
will not wrest authority from him who bears it; wherever we are, we will only hold what
is righteous, without fear of censuring.’ This tradition was analysed in G.H.A. JUYNBOLL,
Early Islamic society as reflected in its use of isnads, in Le Muséon, 107 (1994), p. 175-
179.
134
Cf. Ibn Hisham, As-sira an-nabawiyya, ed. MuÒ†afa as-Saqqa, Ibrahim al-Abyari
and Äbd al-ÎafiÂ Shalabi, Cairo, 1936, IV, p. 241 sqq.
135
There is a report attributed to the early ïlal expert Äli ibn al-Madini (see below)
in which he clearly stated that Malik never knew Ibn IsÌaq personally or heard traditions
with him, quoted in Kha†ib, Ta’rikh, I, p. 229.
384 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
tigious tradition corpus136. He was notorious for his tampering with

isnads, tadlis137.
MuÌammad b. Ümar al-Waqidi (d. 207/823), the celebrated author
of the Maghazi, was the subject of perennial controversy: on the one
hand he was thought to be an amir al-mu¨minin fi ‘l-Ìadith but at the
same time a kadhdhab, a liar. In general, he used to make a mess of his
isnad strands. The text of his akhbar is largely his own: the gist may be
the result of transmission, but the wording is in most cases his.
MuÌammad b. Sa¨d, the secretary of Waqidi and author of Islam's first
†abaqat work, was also a mawla. He lived in Baghdad, where he died in
230/845.
Äli b. al-Ja¨d was a mawla in Baghdad who claimed to be one of the
most prolific transmitters from Shu¨ba. He died in 230/845. He is de-
scribed by the rijal critic al-Juzajani as mutashabbith bi-ghayr bidä
zaîgh äni ‘l-Ìaqq, which probably means something like ‘tenacious but
without harbouring innovative ideas as well as veering away from the
truth', qualifications for a muÌaddith which are found nowhere in the
Ìadith handbooks, as far as I was able to make out138. His tradition cor-
pus was recently edited under the title al-Ja¨diyyat139.
Äli ibn al-Madini is a mawla who was born in BaÒra and who went
to live in Baghdad. He died in 234/849. Beside his colleague, the mawla
YaÌya b. Maïn who was a rijal expert, Äli was well versed in the little
defects in the isnads and texts of traditions, the ïlal. He was called by
some a Ìayyat al-wadi, lit.: ‘a snake of the riverbed', which is supposed
to mean ‘intelligent to the utmost degree' or ‘strong in defending his
possessions' (Lane). Bukhari is said to have felt insignificant in Äli's
presence, something he did not suffer from with anyone else140. He was
compelled during the miÌna to acknowledge that the Qurân was created,
but just before his death he abandoned that point of view again141. The
M. M. al-A¨Âami edition of his work on ïlal (Beirut 1972) leaves one
with the impression that it is far from complete.
Some general observations; summary and conclusions
(1) Discrimination of mawali must surely have occurred on a massive

scale but, curiously enough, references to such behaviour on the part of
136
traditionists of BaÒra, in Le Muséon, 111 (1998), p. 225 sqq.
137
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, VIII, p. 289.
138
Cf. his AÌwal ar-rijal, ed. ∑ubÌi al-Badri as-Samarra’i, Beirut 1985, p. 199.
139
Compiled by Äbd Allah b. MuÌammad al-Baghawi, ed. R.F. Äbd al-Mu††alib,
Cairo, 1994, 2 vols.
140
Cf. Dhahabi, Siyar, XI, p. 46.
141
Cf. ibidem, p. 57 sqq.
Arabs are on the whole surprisingly scant in the sources perused. At

times a mawla's physical appearance is described in such vivid detail
that a hint of disgust and/or wonderment seems to have guided the au-
thor of the report. A case in point is Ä†aˆ b. Abi RabaÌ: he is depicted
as black, one-eyed, flat-nosed, with shriveled arms and cripple legs, and
towards the end of his life he lost the sight in his other eye too142. Speech
defects are also occasionally noted (as in MakÌul above). Sometimes
mawali who had the effrontery to marry an Arab woman, or just kiss
one, were brutally put in their place.
(2) Half a dozen or so cases of rivalry, jealousy or tension among
Arabs and mawali touched upon in the foregoing pages are, I think,
persuasive evidence for the surmise that the Arabs who were involved
in Ìadith matters may have gradually begun to dread the ever-increas-
ing influence of mawali in the furthering of what is after all in their
view a religion which originated with Arab tribesmen led by an Ara-
bian Prophet. But they soon realized they were fighting a losing battle,
overwhelmed as they were by sheer numbers. Towards the end of
the second/eighth century there was hardly an Arab Ìadith master
left amidst hordes of highly qualified and proficient Ìadith mawali.
But that is also the time that the differentiation in the rijal sources
between mawla and Arab starts to fade. Cases of bitter rivalry, though
surely not disappearing altogether, seem no longer to prompt historians
to record them.
(3) It is not only in the transmission of Ìadith that mawali are seen to
take over gradually, also in the introduction of various methods of col-
lecting (tadwin) and Ìadith chapter division (taÒnif) they took the lead.
The initiation of auxiliary disciplines dealing with rijal criticism (Shu¨ba,
YaÌya b. Saïd al-Qa††an, YaÌya b. Maïn), ïlal detection (Ibn al-Ma-
dini), as well as in the sister discipline of fiqh (Rabiät al-Raˆy, Îammad
b. Abi Sulayman, Abu Îanifa) were firmly and definitively in the hands
of mawali. Equipped with insight into fiqh matters and knowledge of
Ìadith, they became excellent advisers, of ruler and subjects alike: thus
we find an ever-increasing number of mawali among Islam's first muftis.
And the farther away you are from the centres of Islamic learning, sc.
the garrison cities and the capital, the more readily you see mawali being
called to serve as qa∂i, a profession initially not even accessible to them.
In general, on a gradually increasing scale mawali contributed to the
foundation and evolution of Ìadith science.
(4) Comparing briefly the collections of the three mawali ™ayalisi, Ibn
Abi Shayba and Äbd ar-Razzaq with one another, one major difference
Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, VII, p. 200.

142
386 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL
leaps to the eye. Whereas in the material of the first two collections
isnad appraisal leads to the observation that a sizeable percentage is al-
legedly transmitted by means of isnad strands which, with full recourse
to Mz. of course, frequently show up cls, that part of Äbd ar-Razzaq's
material which is demonstrably brought into circulation by cls older than
Äbd ar-Razzaq himself is far less bulky in size, not to say minimal. One
may wonder why this is so. It is indeed tempting to speculate that Äbd
ar-Razzaq, cooped up in Yaman as he was, had far less opportunity to
meet Ìadith masters from whom he could learn a thing or two, or he did
not bother to look for such masters. So he simply produced a huge por-
tion of his MuÒannaf himself, all this supported by some of his favourite
ss's, and all this on a far more extensive scale than the two other collec-
tors surveyed above. But all three mawali have enriched Islam, the first
two did it mainly through transmission of what was already there, and
the third one by cleverly introducing (partly) brand-new Ìadiths. Finally,
the mawla Äbd ar-Razzaq had in the Arab Ibn Îanbal a dedicated fol-
lower in producing new matns supported by imaginative ss's to boot.
And Ibn Îanbal had in the six collectors whose collections later became
canonical equally gifted and dedicated followers. The six were not
expressis verbis classified as mawla, at least the term is no longer found
in their tarjamas.
Burggravenlaan 40 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL

2313 HW Leiden
Netherlands
Abstract — After the seventh and eighth century conquests, most members of
the vanquished societies converted to Islam and hence became the clients
(mawali) of their Arab overlords, in fact soon vastly outnumbering these. Pre-
sumably in an attempt to learn to come to grips with their newly acquired reli-
gion, they appeared wholeheartedly to participate in transmitting and otherwise
circulating Prophetic and other traditions (Ìadiths) which, as was the custom of
the day, were provided with the current authenticating device of the isnad, the
chain of transmitters. The paper constitutes an attempt at assessing the extent to
which these non-Arabs have helped in shaping Islam into the religion it eventu-
ally became. This exercise at quantifying the mawali's role in the development
of Islam's second most holy literature genre showed up some perhaps not
wholly unexpected results, but the extent to which the present research provides
an overview might come as a surprise even to the initiated. In general, we ob-
serve how, on a gradually increasing scale, mawali contributed to the foundation
and evolution of Ìadith science.

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THE ROLE OF NON-ARABS, THE MAWALI,

IN THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MUSLIM ÎADITH

Dedicated to the memory of

Introduction. Some mawali of the first/seventh century reviewed

apocryphal, dialogue describing how Zuhri was once interrogated by the

“¨Abd al-Malik asked me (i.e. Zuhri):

a parallel version (ibidem) Egypt is added in this enumeration, with the

Mawali and the Qurˆan

Also in problems arising out of the correct recitation, transmission or

In Kufa there lived the popular preacher-cum-Qurˆan exegete, the

in the transmission of Ìadith were on the whole frowned upon. He hardly

Islam's oldest recorded common link

The most ancient tangle of isnad strands I unearthed resulting in what

expert, mawla of the Banu RiyaÌ, a branch of Tamim32. He was

Abu ‘l-¨Aliya's mursal tradition became controversial because some

(Ar.: madaruhum) and their authority (Ar.: ruju¨uhum) is Abu ‘l-¨Aliya;

Some more mawali

Another well-known mawla who deserves a place in the present con-

Malik b. Anas, in due course imitated by a few dozen or so of contempo-

convenient bridge between one of those typically longeval Companions

circle of pupils in the mosque of Medina. Even so, Musa's tradition

Mawali outside the Îijaz

indication which I interpret as: before the time Ìadith transmission

disposition. He occurs in isnads as al-A¨mash, Sulayman al-A¨mash or

(d. 132/750), something resembling rivalry can be visualized. They oc-

Companions Isma¨il made frequent use, like A¨mash, of some especially

MuÌammad b. Sirin (34/654-110/728), BaÒra, a mawla of Anas b.

‘attributed'. Especially his alleged transmission from Nafi¨, the mawla of

Îammad b. Salama, d. 167/784 from BaÒra, a mawla of Al Rabi¨a b.

practically the beginning of the second/eighth century. In order to sub-

Mawali in Syria and beyond

jihad, is available in a seemingly reliable edition (see above). From its

Some mawali in Baghdad

The more we progress in time, the greater is the number of mawali

tigious tradition corpus136. He was notorious for his tampering with

Some general observations; summary and conclusions

(1) Discrimination of mawali must surely have occurred on a massive

Arabs are on the whole surprisingly scant in the sources perused. At

Cf. Ibn Îajar, Tahdhib, VII, p. 200.

Burggravenlaan 40 G.H.A. JUYNBOLL

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